1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of strawberry named ‘Lucia’. This new short day strawberry variety is the result of a controlled cross in an ongoing breeding program made by the inventor, Jimmy Bagdasarian, in 2008. The variety is botanically known as Fragaria×ananassa. 
The primary market for the ‘Lucia’ variety is for the fresh market sales of the fruit. ‘Lucia’ produces very high quality, large firm berries, which are attractive and which have excellent flavor. The berries produced by the ‘Lucia’ variety are sweet tasting, exhibiting excellent culinary qualities.
2. Description of Relevant Prior Art
The controlled cross, conducted in the ongoing breeding program, which resulted in the ‘Lucia’ variety was between a strawberry variety designated ‘5E10’, a female, and a strawberry variety designated ‘16F29’, a male. The female parent, ‘5E10’, is an unreleased proprietary variety having the following plant characteristics: short day; compact growth habit; blistered, dark colored, high gloss leaves; with smaller size, short conical fruit having a dark red exterior and medium red interior color. The variety denomination of ‘16F29’, the pollen parent, is ‘Sweet Ann’ (patented, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,472). The plant characteristics of ‘Sweet Ann’ are: day-neutral; globose with open plant density; strong vigor; leaves have medium glossiness with weak or absent blistering; with large size, conical fruit having a glossy medium red exterior and interior color.
The aforementioned controlled cross was carried out in a breeding program at Santa Cruz, Calif., USA. Pollen taken from a ‘16F29’ plant pollinated a female ‘5E10’ plant. The flowers were covered so that no other pollen could contaminate the procedure.
Strawberries developed, were later harvested and the seeds resulting from this cross were extracted and germinated in a greenhouse at Redding, Calif., USA. The resulting seedlings were transplanted to Shastina, Calif. in 2009, grown for an additional period of time and allowed to propagate asexually. Plants were then harvested and planted in breeding plots in early to mid-October in: Oxnard, Calif. (Ventura County); and Watsonville, Calif. (Monterey County). The selection of the new variety was first made in Watsonville, Calif., and designated ‘42J4’ in 2010. This selection was later named ‘Lucia’.
The new variety was further propagated asexually by stolons in breeding plots in: Macdoel, Calif. (Siskiyou County); and Manteca, Calif. (San Joaquin County).
The new variety has also been “meristemed.” Small pieces of plant material (approximately 0.5 mm in diameter), consisting of the undifferentiated meristem tissue and one or two leaf primordia, were removed from the buds on crowns of young daughter plants, then placed on nutrient medium, and new plants were grown from them. Planting stock from the “meristemed” plants are growing in a screenhouse located in Redding, Calif.
The propagules of ‘Lucia’ (‘42J4’) are identical to the original plant in all distinguishing characteristics; accordingly, the propagation has demonstrated that the traits disclosed herein remain fixed and true to type through successive generations of asexual reproduction.